Create Data Icons in Excel 2007 Using Conditional Formatting Rules Manager

When people look at complex Excel spreadsheets, they can get blurry-eyed and confused trying to figure out which numbers meet the company's goals, which numbers are below goals, and which numbers are in the cautionary area.

With the Excel 2007 Rules Manager in Conditional Formatting, we can create icons that are based on established values that follow the company's goals and guidelines. To Create icons that have specific values, do the following:

• Create a data table or use and existing data table in Excel 2007,
• Under the Home tab, select the Conditional Formatting button
• Scroll down to the Icon Sets button and select the type of icons that you want to use in your data table
• Once you have inserted the type of icons you want, the next thing to do is establish values for the icons
• Now select the entire data table or a specific column set in the data table
• Reselect the Conditional Formatting button and scroll down to the Manage Rules button,
• The Conditional Rules Manager Rules box will be displayed
• Select Edit Rules and establish the values for each icon that you have chosen
• Select OK and save your data table.

The following is an example data table using Icon Sets to represent values in each cell. In this example, anything in the 20s is good, and anything below 10 needs immediate attention.

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